Leaders of the Bangladesh Textile Garments Workers Federation (BTGWF) at a roundtable Friday demanded especial allocation in the ensuring budget for five fields including rationing, housing and healthcare for the welfare of the workers.

Other discussants, however, called for a greater coordination between the government and all other stakeholders of the country's textile and garment industry in fixation of a suitable wage structure for the workers.

The BTGWF organised the roundtable at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) in the city.

President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) AK Azad, Secretary General Comrade Khalequzzaman of Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, president of the Bangladesh Jago Garments Federation, Bahar Uz Zaman, president of the Bangladesh Biplobi Garment Federation, Salahuddin Shapan, Nima Ferdousi of Garment Sramik Kalyan Samity, Shafiqur Rahman of Garment Sramik Shilpa Rakkha Samity, Delwar Hossain of Jatiya Malik Sramik Garment Federation, Lovely Nasrin and Rafiqul Islam Pathik of Somonnito Garment Federation took part in the roundtable discussion, among others.

The FBCCI president in his speech said in the coming fiscal Bangladesh's export receipts could be $26 billion against the possible import payments of $42 billion. Therefore, necessary support is needed for the garment sector to help lessen the country's possible trade deficit, he said.

The FBCCI president said due to unexpected casualties in the garment industrial zone some of the major buyers are intending to shift their focus from Bangladesh to other destinations like Myanmar.

He said already a big buyer of the world has decided not to increase their business in Bangladesh following frequent incidents of clashes and casualties in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector.

For the low wage earning workers, it is essential to support them by providing basic food in rationing system like the defence services people, housing in small and affordable instalments and treatment facilities by the government, said the central committee president of BTGWF, Advocate Mahbubur Rahman Ismail at the roundtable discussion.

Mr. Ismail in his keynote speech said only the garment and textile industries' contribution in the national economy is 79 per cent and in 5200 factories across the country more than 0.35 million workers are giving low cost labour. He said due to soaring commodity prices, poor medical services and high rent of housing the workers' overall lifestyle is continuously deteriorating.

Out of Tk 3000 salary, a worker has to bear his costs of food, housing, treatment and other expenses which are quite inadequate, Mr Ismail said. He also said to increase the workers productivity the government must allocate money for them in the upcoming budget.

Comrade Khalequzzaman said to solve the garment workers' wage problem there should be coordinated discussions in presence of government officials, workers' representatives and the entrepreneurs. He said workers must be united to realise their demands from the factory owners and the government. Discrimination in wage is not new in the world, he said and added coordinated efforts are the only way to solve the problems.

President of the Bangladesh Apparel Workers' Federation Towhidur Rahman said, "We do not get proper medical treatment in the hospitals, whereas the garment workers are contributing a lot to the national economy.